Shuttleworth Airshow July 3rd

[Stationair8]

Noticed that the Boeing B17 is making an appearance at this weeks Airshow.

Just curious does the B17 land at Old Warden or just conducts a flying display and then back to its home base?

[treadigraph]

You might land it ok, but I doubt the B-17 could get airborne again from Old Warden. I believe the heaviest aircraft that has flown out of the airfield was Tony Haig-Thomas's Avenger. They extended the strip so they could operate the DH-88 Comet out of there; when it was first rebuilt to fly in the 1980s, it was based at Hatfield.

[VictorGolf]

I seem to remember a Varsity doing a "touch and go" there some years back. Always wondered what it did to the grass runway, if anything.

[dont overfil]

Percival Prince perhaps? It was a fairly regular visitor. A bit like a Varsity but with tricycle U/C.

Old Warden is only 10 minutes from the Sally B's base at Duxford. If it did a slightly larger than normal circuit it would do a flypast at Old Warden.:-)

[sycamore]

don`t...the Varsity had a tricycle gear.....

[Wander00]

and somewhat larger than a Prince

[treadigraph]

Amazingly the Avenger is heavier than the Prince (or Pembroke?), but certainly nowhere near as heavy as the Varsity (but then that was just a touch and go!) ;)

[VictorGolf]

It is some time ago but there were two Varsities operated by groups on the airshow circuit. One unfortunately crashed and the other one lingered on at Duxford for many years. It subsequently went to the museum at Newquay. Which one flew at Old Warden, I'm not sure.